Tell us about your new improved government regulations compliant cycle part II

Fighting Tao

Chuchote wrote: »

It is - except for the fact that the local hobby seems to be glass-smashing, if you look at the surface of the paths through the park.

I haven't encountered a problem on the main route from east link (by the flats) through to the estate on Sean Moore road. I have on some of the path just outside the perimeter fence between Irishtown and Pigeon House rd.

retalivity

First ton of the year this morning, dublin city centre out to carbury and back via straffan, clane, allenwood, carbury, kilshanroe, ???? , Kilcock, leixlip, the park.

Bit of rain in dublin both leaving and coming back, but out in the country it was grand. Only the Lovely smell of rain and slurry to accompany me for large parts of it. Got lost on some backroads between carbury and kilcock, but got a nice look at the countryside, and the heaps upon heaps of nice houses going up in the middle of nowhere.

Strava acting the bollix again, cut out a few times then gave up completely in castleknock in the way home. 109km in 4h45 by their reckoning, probably closer to 115km when i add the rest

https://www.strava.com/activities/895966770

dahat

Openers on the turbo on prep for my first A4 race tomorrow....

Pretty nervous at this point but this is quite normal for me just hoping all goes well tomorrow.

nilhg

First proper long one of the season today, down to the Blooms, the Cut, Wolftrap, Wolftrap from Lackarhoe, back over the Cut and home.

The plan was miles in the legs/hours in the saddle, wasn't too worried about speed, felt well enough all through so happy enough, one bonus was I was expecting to have to do it solo but one of my clubmates came along which made the time go by a bit quicker.

160km, 1500m

https://www.strava.com/activities/896012105

secman

Headed from house to Killenagh, ballycanew, left turn to Ballyedmund and on to Castlebridge towards wexford town, left turn on to coast road to curracloe, Blackwater, kilmuckridge and home.
65 km Avg 26.7 on garmin... strava always says a tad lower.
Sadly no sun at all today in sunny southeast !

positron

Went out on my first long ride ever, and came with great appreciation for cycling and why so many do it - Drogheda-Julianstown-Duleek and back the same way, only 30 kms or so and I was probably the slowest thing going on the road with Strava showing an average speed of around 21.2kmph, I dont' care, I loved it - so beautiful out there even with the wind pushing me back and cars flying by (which I am not used to, I am on a motorbike most of the time and I am used to overtaking rather than being overtaken), it's just so nice to get out and get so much fresh air before traffic picks up.

robyntmorton

Yesterday - Out with the Galway Cycle group on a training spin. Planned 90km turned into an actual 95 ish, due to having to move the turn around point.

The run out of Maynooth to Kilcock and on to the Enfield bypass was simple enough. I, and the bike felt much better than the previous attempt at it. From there we took a tun off to Johnstown Bridge and on to Carbury in order to make the extra distance. The road out felt horrible, a very up and down affair, coinciding with my turn at the front (something I am not used to, being more of a solo cyclist. I had to be reminded to keep my line and my pace constant, which I found difficult without the visual cues from being behind someone. I got used to it though). The road back from Carbury seemed much easier though.

The rest stop in Mother Hubbards (km 51) was most welcome and a chance for respite and refuelling before getting back out on the road to our turn around point in Kinnegad, before heading back towards Enfield, Kilcock, and into Maynooth.

Unfortunately, on the climb back into Enfield my legs decided that they had suffered enough and gave out on me, tossing me out of the back of the group, and despite much encouragement from the more experienced riders it was the support bus for me for a few minutes to recover before getting back onboard at the regroup in Kilcock to ride in the final few km.

84 km for the day, with an avg speed of 24.5 km/h. Slightly disappointed that I couldn't hold on up that hill, but c'est la vie. Next time I'll get it.

barrier86

40k. South city, coast road, round Howth and back. First cycle of the year and first time in my bike in about 5 months. Onwards ans upwards from here, I hope.

Boscoirl

97km today, killer wind the last 20km, would normally stuck a bit on at the end to break the 100, but I was empty,

Mercian Pro

Got a bit carried away this morning on the Haul d'Naul sportif. Somehow found myself in the up lane of the lead group after coming out of Rush. Didn't play cute like a good few others and took my turn at the sharp end just before we hit a hill. Lasted a few minutes but promptly shot out the back once I rolled over.
Luckily I was able to team up with two guys from West Clare and Clontarf and we managed to stay ahead of anyone behind without ever seeing the lead group again. Got back to Swords in a good time by working well together and very pleased with my 30.3kph average.
A good start to the sportif season, well organised and a fair bit raised for DSI. Next up the Tour de Foothills or the SERC 3 Peaks.

dahat

Ras Luimni today, A4 debut with 137 lads hammering around narrow roads was always going to be hairy and plenty crashes one which looked serious, hope all is ok with the lad in question

Spent KMS 40-52 maybe in a two breakaway just a bit up the road and had a ball, headwinds and crosswinds were no help at all. Finished maybe top 50 but had nothing left last 1km.

62km at 37.9km average and a normalized power of 323 watts, unsure.

Takca

Over the Christmas during a moment of drunken weakness, me and some friends decided to do a 21km charity cycle(its been about 15 years since I cycled and I've at least 4 stone I should loose). After a few weeks trying to prepare myself Today was the day, I lined up feeling quiet out of place on my hybrid, it was a time trial format so off we went one by one. About 9km in and I run over a grate on the road, immediately I'm running on a flat on the front ;-( , 10+ minutes later everybody has passed me and I've replaced my tube with a spare, I'm off again(with the new tube bulging out through a split in the tire). I caught up on a handfull of people and about 2.5km from the end a second flat. That was the end of the day for me, back in the support vehicle.

I intend to keep cycling so I'll have to go back soon and redo the damn thing.

https://www.strava.com/activities/897221263

coddlesangers

So 36km today, but possibly the best 36km I've ever done as it came only 40 days after my partial menisectomy. Chuffed.

https://www.strava.com/activities/897480781/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1489330070

secman

Headed to ballygarret, up coast road to Courtown, Ballymoney, around Tara hill and on to Castletown. Out on to main road at inch and headed for Gorey. Just before Gorey, left Turn back to Ballymoney, courtown, ballygarret heading towards Kilmuckridge and turned for home. A meandering route hugging coast, trying to avoid the wind , a westerly I think, nice to see the sun again in sunny southeast .
62km avg 24 kph.

grouchyman

Normally do my bit of cycling on the flat, but this weekend I was in Kildare so Yesterday I got the opportunity with the help of two brothers to do a bit of cycling around the blessington lakes. So starting in Kilteel up the Lamb Doyle's across the Blessington road to Manor Kilbride then onto Lacken, Hollywood, Blessington and baco to Kilteel via Glendeer, Eadstown and the old Kill pits. 64 km in four and a half hours. I have to confess I walked up about the last 100m of the Lamb Doyle's and coming home on the last leg just past PDM. I had to get off and walk the last five or six hundred yards. But I don't care as was definitely the toughest bit of cycling I've done to date.

secman

grouchyman wrote: »

Normally do my bit of cycling on the flat, but this weekend I was in Kildare so Yesterday I got the opportunity with the help of two brothers to do a bit of cycling around the blessington lakes. So starting in Kilteel up the Lamb Doyle's across the Blessington road to Manor Kilbride then onto Lacken, Hollywood, Blessington and baco to Kilteel via Glendeer, Eadstown and the old Kill pits. 64 km in four and a half hours. I have to confess I walked up about the last 100m of the Lamb Doyle's and coming home on the last leg just past PDM. I had to get off and walk the last five or six hundred yards. But I don't care as was definitely the toughest bit of cycling I've done to date.

It's a lovely spin around back of the lakes, with meandering roads, sharp drags, beautiful scenery, good for the soul:)

Somedude9

secman wrote: »

It's a lovely spin around back of the lakes, with meandering roads, sharp drags, beautiful scenery, good for the soul:)

That's a tough road, it fairly kicked my arse at the weekend.

Wishbone Ash

secman wrote: »

It's a lovely spin around back of the lakes, with meandering roads, sharp drags, beautiful scenery, good for the soul:)

I'd have to disagree - it's soul destroying. Whatever it is, that road just sucks the life out of me. I only do it when it is part of a sportive or when someone else has organised it. It's a route I'd never voluntarily take.

smacl

90k with the regular crew yesterday. Six of us started out, then we dropped to five and were somehow up to eight by the time we got to Laragh. Blowy enough over the Sally gap coming home and a spectacular squall on the last leg made it plenty challenging. Bit of sunshine too, and great to see a few more hours of daylight available to cycle in.

smacl

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I'd have to disagree - it's soul destroying. Whatever it is, that road just sucks the life out of me. I only do it when it is part of a sportive or when someone else has organised it. It's a route I'd never voluntarily take.

More of a road for a plodder like myself than someone trying to keep a decent pace. Got passed by nilhg on it a couple of times on the Reservoir dog last year. Real tortoise and hare stuff, though the hare made it home long before the tortoise on that day.

Mercian Pro

secman wrote: »

It's a lovely spin around back of the lakes, with meandering roads, sharp drags, beautiful scenery, good for the soul:)

I think it depends on whether it comes early or late in a long ride. It always seems a lot nicer on the Tour de Foothills than on the Orwell Randonee.

grouchyman

secman wrote: »

It's a lovely spin around back of the lakes, with meandering roads, sharp drags, beautiful scenery, good for the soul:)

Smashing weather on Saturday afternoon the lakes were like mirrors so I stopped in Lacken to take a quick photo.

But the hills. going up was tough but the descents were not for the faint-hearted.:eek: I'll have to work on improving my technique and replacing my back brake blocks

secman

I'd normally hit it after 30km from Kilnamanagh, no doubt it's a heavy road, scenery is uplifting and satisfaction when you finish it is too. I'd always take the route past blessington and left for valleymount and finish on " spiders Web " lump at Lacken. Not a spin to get a good Avg but good for the legs and soul .

kirk buttercup

Did my first " Club spin" it was a 55 km spin with a climb of just under 600m. I struggled to keep with them on the Climbs but kept good enough pace in the flatter parts . Took in Ashford roundwood laragh rathdrum and barndarrig wicklow.

smacl

Up to Foxes and the Pine Forest road at lunch, very blowy out there even though warm. A couple of hairy moments coming down Cruagh road in strong cross winds not helped by roadworks half way down. One of those rare days where the climbing was more fun than the descending.

secman

As I needed 42 km to round up to 800 km for the year to date, my night spin to Lucan tonight involved a good number of loops and repeat loops. It looks like I got lost on strava !
Anyways mission accomplished. 42km Avg 24kph.

smacl

Just in from a short spin back from the parade at Stepaside. Not to bad going out earlier, but the wind on the way back was horrific, particularly the motorway bridge on Blackglen road where I struggled to stay upright. I was on the old hybrid and really missed being able get into the drops to avoid some of the weather. Won't be going out again until the wind drops by a few kph.

nilhg

Two of us decided yesterday evening to head for Wicklow this morning, was a bit time limited so threw the bikes in the van and drove up to Blessington and parked, as I usually do, near the Garda station and headed on up to the Sally Gap, conditions weren't too bad going up, though it was a bit breezy and it actually brightened up well before we got to the cross roads so the decision was made to continue on to Laragh via the waterfall as that road was more likely to offer a bit of shelter.

It wasn't too bad for the first few km, then the cloud came down and the wind started to blow a horizontal drizzle, it really was a bit miserable, even though I threw on the extra rain jacket I had over my Mistral I was still feeling a bit chilly dropping down into Laragh. The plan was a quick coffee in the fairy cafe but a decent sized Orwell just beat us there and we didn't fancy standing around getting colder in a queue so we had to make do with a quick coffee from the fancy Dan machine in the garage before heading up the Wicklow Gap.

I was sort of dreading this, thought we'd have a block headwind the whole way up but it wasn't too bad, the climbing wasn't long warming us up and the wind really only was an issue near the top and on the steep bit by the carpark.

Cold enough again on the drop back down the western side but we warmed up again once we had to work into the wind on the more level bits and we weren't long getting back to Blessington, but, at the last roundabout before the town the Guards had the road blocked for the parade, which meant we were going to be stuck till it passed, we went round the back way and met a guard who let us through and told us we had about 3 minutes to get the bikes in the van and get out of there.....

So if anyone was watching the Blessington parade and saw two very damp and cold lads leading the parade by 30 seconds in a little white van, that was us......


https://www.strava.com/activities/903585624

dahat

A4 Landy Cup in Carrick on Suir today for me. Conditions were ok with a tricky headwind for part of it but at least the rain held off.

Stayed prominent most of the race and with 70 lads it was a lot safer than last week's race. I ended up Top 15 maybe and only for a poor line into a technical Sprint I'd have finished top 10 I'd say.

As this was only my second ever race I'm pretty effin pleased and with a Threshold Value of 305 according to Training Peaks after the race it bodes well for season ahead.

Interested Observer

I got a bike in January, first time I've had one for 15-20 years. Using it for my commute and hit 500km for the year this week which is a nice little milestone. I know some of you guys would knock that out in a week, but happy enough with it and it's made my commute so much quicker too as I had to drive right through the middle of town previously. Just looking forward to some better weather now.